1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to an ink cartridge and more particularly to an ink cartridge for use with a color ink jet printer.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
An ink cartridge including a plurality of ink chambers formed integrally with each other is utilized to conduct a printing operation in a color printer. The color printer typically uses inks of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. Such an ink cartridge is particularly used in a color ink jet printer.
This type of ink cartridge, which uses inks of more than one color, typically including yellow, magenta, cyan and black, frequently employs a multi-level density printing method. In cartridges utilizing this multi-level density printing method, two types of ink of each color, including one light and one deep color, must be used. In designing an ink cartridge of a multi-level density printing type, if the ink chambers containing the inks are arranged in a line, there is a problem in that the size of the tank cannot be reduced beyond a certain point because of the size of the ink supply ports required for each ink chamber. Thus, each of the chambers cannot be reduced beyond a certain width. As a result, the ink cartridge is required to be constructed with extremely large length. Additionally, it is difficult to mount the ink cartridge on the carriage when it is so long. When loading such an ink cartridge, the ink cartridge may be shifted or skewed from its proper position, and in an extreme case, it is possible that the ink supply needles may be broken.
One way to increase the volumes of the ink chambers within the ink cartridge without increasing the overall size is to reduce the thickness of the partitioning walls between the ink chambers, for example. However, this approach may result in the problem of a reduced mechanical strength of the ink cartridge.
For any number of particular types of printer, the included carriages may be uniform in size, as a result of the manufacturing requirements and parts management requirements. Thus, the outside dimensions of various ink cartridges may be uniform, and thus it is possible that improper ink cartridges may be loaded onto a particular printer.
If the outside dimension of an ink cartridge is reduced, thus resulting in a reduction in the size of each the ink chambers, and an ink chamber has had a lot of ink used from it, or is an ink chamber having a small volume, even if a slight amount of ink evaporates from the ink chamber, the viscosity of the ink retained therein will change greatly, and thus will be different than the other inks.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide an ink cartridge for use with a color ink jet printer which overcomes the problem of the prior art.